


four times ysandre de la courcel thought about asking phèdre no delaunay to share her bed and one time she actually did

by Netgirl_y2k



Category: Kushiel's Legacy - Jacqueline Carey
Genre: 5 Things, F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-05
Updated: 2013-09-05
Packaged: 2017-12-25 17:45:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/955924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Netgirl_y2k/pseuds/Netgirl_y2k
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>ysandre had never asked for naamah's blessing, or for kushiel's harsh mercy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	four times ysandre de la courcel thought about asking phèdre no delaunay to share her bed and one time she actually did

i.

ysandre never visited the court of night blooming flowers as a young woman; her marriage was destined to be a political one, and it was necessary that she remain a virgin until her wedding night. 

if it had been possible ysandre might have visited orchis house to see whether the adepts there might have made her laugh during dark times, or heliotrope house to revel in the illusion of unwavering loyalty.

she would not have visited cereus house, having lost both her parents by the age of seven she was all too familiar with the fleeting nature of life and beauty, and she would not have visited valerian house where phèdre would have spent her days and nights had her future lain in the night court.

in any case, had visits to the night court been permitted, by the time ysandre came of age phèdre had long since departed for delaunay's household, they would not have crossed paths.

 

ii.

after her wedding night ysandre wondered if any of naamah's servants had ever considered opening a salon on the theme of youth and untutored ardour... but mayhaps without love to sweeten it untutored ardour loses something of its appeal. 

drustan was as new to naamah's arts as ysandre, but they had years ahead of them, as well as a copy of the trois mille joies that had been a wedding gift.

drustan asked her once if she ever thought of taking a lover during the times he was in alba. she didn't, the night court had lost its fascination for ysandre; desire without love held little appeal.

_never...?_

ysandre thought of phèdre as she had seen her last; in the hall of games, kneeling abeyante at nicola l'envers' feet.

 _the comtesse de montreve,_ drustan said, his alban eyes crinkled knowingly.

later ysandre whispered in drustan's ear: _we could make her kneel in the moonlight and watch us_ , and the cruarch shuddered and spilled his seed inside her as eager as any untried young man.

 

iii.

ysandre lit a candle to eisheth already knowing that pregnancy would come with its share of discomforts. she was prepared for the swollen ankles and the back pains, she was not prepared to be in a near constant state of arousal. 

drustan planned to return for the birth of their first child, but he was not here yet. 

roxanne de merliot, the lady of marsilikos, a mother and physician both, shared a sympathetic look with ysandre when she noticed the queen couldn't settle comfortably to any task.

any of the dowaynes would be delighted to send adepts to dance attendance on the queen of terre d'ange; men, women, whomever she desired for however long she should desire them, but she did not want just any servant of naamah that she neither knew nor trusted.

ysandre rang for a servant, it was on the tip of the tongue to request the presence of the comtesse de montreve, instead she asked for her papers to be brought from her office. 

as she did not have drustan, terre d'ange would have to serve in his stead; ysandre squeezed her thighs together and turned her attention to her work.

 

iv.

it would be a lie unworthy of a queen to say that after phèdre used the companion's star and claimed her boon ysandre never dreamed of punishing her. of course she thought of making phèdre kneel at her feet, and of raising weals on her perfect skin. 

but ysandre harboured no illusions that she could move phèdre to give her signale, and while kushiel's fire ran in the blood of house l'envers it burned lower in ysandre than in others. 

it would most likely be a uniquely frustrating experience for ysandre and phèdre both.

in any event it wasn't phèdre's anguisette nature that sang to ysandre, it was her loyalty; she was as loyal to ysandre and the throne of terre d'ange as her lord anafiel delaunay had ever been to ysandre's father prince rolande.

at least that's what ysandre had believed, and it was having doubt cast over that belief that made her heart ache so.

 

v.

d'angelines were a long lived people, a gift of elua and his companions, it was not until she watched the funeral procession make its way through byrn gorrydum that ysandre reckoned it also a curse. 

phèdre and joscelin, sidone and imriel, alais and her harpist, any one of them would catch ysandre if she stumbled; but she was still a queen of terre d'ange, even without her cruarch, and she did not mean to stumble.

and it was a comfort to know that drustan had been loved by his own people as much as he was loved in the city of elua.

ysandre awoke from a broken sleep in clunderry and found herself alone apart from phèdre no delaunay kneeling abeyante at the foot of the bed.

ysandre had never asked for naamah's blessing or kushiel's harsh mercy - she had only to look at the two nations they had ruled, and at sidonie and alais, to know that her union with drustan had been blessed by elua himself - but on this night she thought she could use both. 

she could break herself against phèdre's willing and ever-yielding flesh, raging against the unfairness of this life. 

_phèdre?_

phèdre raised her head, the scarlet mote shining in her eye. 

_anything, my queen._


End file.
